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Long-lasting chemicals threaten the environment and human health
Date:12/21/2010

Every hour, an enormous quantity and variety of manmade chemicals, having reached the end of their useful lifespan, flood into wastewater treatment plants. These large-scale processing facilities, however, are designed only to remove nutrients, turbidity and oxygen-depleting human waste, and not the multitude of chemicals put to residential, institutional, commercial and industrial use. So what happens to these chemicals, some of which may be toxic to humans and the environment? Do they get destroyed during wastewater treatment or do they wind up in the environment with unknown consequences?

New research by Rolf Halden and colleagues at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University seeks to address such questions. The group's results, reported recently in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring, suggest that a number of high production volume (HPV) chemicalsthat is, those used in the U.S. at rates exceeding 1 million pounds per year, are likely to become sequestered in post-treatment sludge and from there, enter the environment when these so-called biosolids are deposited on land.

As Halden notes, over 4000 chemicals in common usage in the U.S. qualify as HPV chemicals, the vast majority of which have never been evaluated in terms of exotoxicity (their potential to adversely affect ecosystems), or for the risks they may pose to humans. "With each of these compounds, we are engaged in an experiment conducted on a nationwide scale," says Halden; "Odds are, some of these chemicals will turn out to be bad players and will pose problems for ecosystems, public health or both."

Unfortunately, it is neither technically nor economically feasible to perform the kind of detailed analyses necessary to declare this vast swirl of chemicals safe for humans or environmentally benign following wastewater treatment. Instead, Halden's efforts are aimed at narrowing the field of potentially troublesome chemicals, by defining traits likel
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Contact: Joseph Caspermeyer
joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu
Arizona State University
Source:Eurekalert  

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